Galápagos corals show El Niño events are more extreme now than in past 1,000 years – here’s how my team made the discovery

Researchers analyzed living and fossil corals from the Galápagos Islands, using oxygen isotope and strontium-to-calcium ratios preserved in coral skeletons to reconstruct sea surface temperatures going back roughly 1,000 years, with some fossil samples dated to 4,500 years old.

The study, published in Science, found El Niño events over the past 40 years were stronger than any recorded in that millennium-long record, coinciding with human-caused global warming and exceeding what climate models attribute to natural variability alone.

The 1982-83 El Niño killed more than 95% of Galápagos corals and contributed to climate extremes worldwide, including flooding in Kenya and Peru and drought in Indonesia and Brazil, with global economic costs estimated as high as $4 trillion.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.